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The Marine Corps has formed a vision of how to conduct future amphibious warfare through its development of Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS), Ship-to-Objective Maneuver (STOM), and Sea-based Logistics (SBL) concepts. These concepts have forces deploying directly from ship to objectives ashore with a reduction or elimination of logistics infrastructure ashore. Combat forces operating ashore will be sustained directly from a sea-base with support from ship-to-shore transporters. By sea basing logistics functions, there will be a much greater demand upon these transporters. This thesis models the sea-based sustainment of Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) forces deployed from amphibious warfare ships. A scenario for analysis is developed with force packages of personnel and equipment located at certain locations ashore during different days of an operation. Sustainment requirements and available transporter capacity are then determined and compared for twenty-seven cases comprising different ship-to-shore distances, different levels of aircraft attrition due to enemy interdiction, and different footprints of mobile logistics forces deployed ashore. This comparison provides insight into the ability of SBL to sustain forces ashore conducting rations in accordance with OMFTS and STOM concepts.

The Marine Corps plans to fight battles in the 21st century using the littoral battlespace to maneuver forces from a sea-base to the operational objective. Combat forces ashore will be sustained directly from a sea-base ...

Future sea bases, such as the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future), will serve as key distribution nodes and must be able to sustain forces ashore and selectively offload supplies from storerooms quickly and efficiently. ...

The need for effective operation from the sea while conducting amphibious operations ashore has never been more evident than in today's modern conflicts. As important as this task is it has not significantly changed since ...